Warp-doubling machine



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 2.

- J. MAGOALLUM.

WARP DOUBLING MACHINE- No. 558,411. Patented Apr. 14, 1896.

Witnesses: Inventor.

A 41mm, @wf gor w Attornevs ANDREW Elm-MAM. PHOTO LITHQ WASKINGTGNJHZ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.-

.IAMES MACCALLUM, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

WARP-DOUBLING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 558,411, dated April 14, 1896.

Application filed March 13,1895. Serial No. 541,588. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES MAOOALLUM, a subject of the Queen of England, residing at Worcester, in the county of lVorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in \Varp-Doubling Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a machine for doubling a long thread or warp or for associating and securing together a number of warps, so that the product may be freely handled, and the individual threads will not be liable to become snarled or knotted together.

To these ends my invention consists of the warp-doubling machine as hereinafter de-- scribed, and more particularly pointed out in the claims at the end of this specification.

In the accompanying two sheets of drawings, Figure l is an end elevation of a warpdoubling machine constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a detail sectional view of the traveling carriage, taken on the line 2 2 of Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the traveling carriage. Figs. 4 and 5 are enlarged detail views illustrating a cam and the devices for automatically reversing the throw of the cam. Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the ma chine, and Fig. 7 is a detail view of the associated warps or the product of the machine.

My invention has been especially designed with a view of facilitating the dyeing and handling of what are known as cotton warps.

Cotton threads or warps are very extensively employed in weaving a great variety of textile fabrics, and in practice it is desirable to have unbroken warps or threads of exceed ingly great lengths. The present practice in preparing the warps for dyeing or handling is to repeatedly double the warps or threads until they are formed into a compact bunch or skein-that is to say, the ends of the warp are brought together by hand and are pulled along, thus once doubling the warp. The ends are then again brought together, and the process is repeated until the product has been reduced to a length in which it can be conven-' iently handled. This process is extremely slow, and requires skilled labor to carry it out. Furthermore, the warps as thus assoc1- ated or doubled together are liable to become twisted or snarled during the dyeing process, and it is often extremely difiticult to split down these bundles of warps so that the individual threads may be again disentangled and straightened out.

In carrying out my invention I employ a machine consisting, essentially, of a reel or drum having a series of pins arranged upon its periphery and a reciprocating carriage having a guide'or eye for the thread movably mounted therein. The guide or eye for the thread is so actuated that the thread, as it is wound upon the drum, will pass alternately upon opposite sides of the successive pins. When the travel of the reciprocating carriage is reversed, the throw of the movable guide or eye will also be reversed, the threads thus being made to cross the layer of threads just wound upon the reel, as shown most clearly in Fig. 6. When the desired length of warp has been wound upon the reel by successive reciprocations of the traveling carriage, small binding threads or ties t are passed by hand through the shed formed by the cross-threads, as indicated in Fig. 7. The final loop of the warps around the end pin of the reel may be slipped off from the said pin, and the associated warps, having substantially the form illustrated in Fig. 7, may be unwound from the reel.

Referring to the drawings and in detail, A designates a reel or drum which is journaled in boxes 10 and 11, carried upon side frames 12 and 13. In its preferred form the reel A is constructed with a series of pairs of rigid arms 14 and 15, which joineach other at an angle, and are rigidly secured to disks or center pieces 16, carried by the central shaft 19. The rigid arms leand 15 are braced and tied together by means of straight connecting-braces 17 and angular or offset braces 18. The angular braces 18 are provided with bearings 180 for receiving the sliding or movable arms 20 and 21. The movable arms 20 and 21 are offset near their inner ends, and are provided with racks 23 meshing upon 0pposite sides of pinions 24, carried upon a shaft 25, which is journaled in the central disks 16, as shown most clearlyin Fig. 6. Secured on the outer end of the shaft 25 is a worm-wheel 26, which meshes with a worm upon an adjusting-shaft 27. By vmeans of this construction it will be seen that the adj usting-shaft 27 when turned in one direction will expand the reel A by moving the arms 20 and 21 outwardly. \Vhen the adj ustingshaft is turned in the opposite direction, the arms 20 and 21 will move inward, and the reel may be contracted for a purpose hereinafter described.

Supported on the outer ends of the rigid arms 14 and 15 and the movable arms and 21 are longitudinal strips 22, having pins a secured therein, as shown.

The gearing for driving the reel may be arranged as follows: 28 and 29 designate loose pulleys, and 30 and 31 designate tight pulleys, all of which are mounted upon a shaft 32, journaled in side frames 300. The shaft 32 is provided with a gear 33, which meshes with and drives a gear 34, secured upon the shaft 35. The reel is turn ed or driven from the shaft 35 by means of the chain 38 and the sprocketwheels 36 and 37. The pulleys 011 the shaft 32 may be driven from any suitable source of power, preferably by means of an open and a cross belt. These driving-belts may be shifted byhand or by any ordinary belt-shifting device, which it is not necessary to herein show or describe at length. Then the open belt engages with a tight pulley and the cross belt engages with a loose pulley, the reel will be turned in one direction. hen the belts are shifted so that the open belt engages with a loose pulley and the cross-belt engages with a tight pulley, the motion will be reversed, and the reel will be turned in the opposite direction. A bed-piece 41 extends between one of the side frames 300 and a frame 42 at the opposite end of the machine. A guidingcarriage O is movably mounted on the bedpiece 41, and may be reciprocated by means of a lead-screw 40, having a gear 39, which meshes with and is driven from the gear 33.

As shown most clearly in Figs. 2 and 3, the carriage O is provided with a nut 410 for engaging the lead-screw, and also loosely splined upon said lead-screw is a gear 43, which meshes with and drives a gear 44, carried upon a shaft 45, as shown.

Referring to Fig. 4, it will be seen that the shaft 45 is provided with a fixed collar 52, and has a cam 49 loosely mounted thereon. The cam 49 has a pin 50 extending therefrom in a position to engage with a slot 51 in the face of the collar 52. By means of this construction it will be seen that when the shaft 45 is turning in one direction the pin 50 will engage with and be actuated by one end of the slot 51, and when turning in the other clirection the pin 50 will engage with the opposite end of the slot 51, as shown most clearly by the dotted lines in Fig. 5. A movable guide or eye 46 for the thread is carried by an arm 460, which is pivotally mounted in the carriage 0 upon a stud 47, as shown. At its lower end the arm 460 is provided with a pin 48, which fits into and engages the slot 490 in the cam 49.

As shown most clearly in Fig. 6, the warps or threads T may be drawn from any suitable source of supply and passed through guide-rollers 56 and 57 over avertical guideroller 53, between the guide-rollers 54 and to the movable guide or eye 46, from which they are wound onto the reel.

The operation of the machine may be described as follows: hen the belts are shifted so as to engage a tight pulley, the drum will be rotated by means of the gearing, as be fore described, and will wind up the warps which will be drawn around the guiding-rollers. At the same time the movable carriage will be fed along and the cam 49 will reciprocate the movable guide or eye 46, so that the thread will be wound upon the reel substantially in the form of a helix or spiral and will pass alternately around opposite sides of the successive pins. When the belts are again shifted to rotate the reel in the opposite direction, the carriage C will also be fed in the opposite direction, and the throw of the cam 49 will be reversed, as the pin 50 will then engage with the opposite end of the slot 51. This will reverse the motion of the movable guide or eye 40, so that as the thread winds back upon the drum it will cross the threads which have just been wound thereon, as shown. Inasmuch as the reel increases somewhat in diameter as the thread is wound thereon, the length of a thread in an outer layer would be somewhat greater than the length of a thread in an inner layer, and when the product is removed from the reel and straightened out the threads of the illner layer would be strained, while the threads of the outer layer would be somewhat slack. To overcome this defect the adj usting-shaft 27 may be actuated to draw in the movable arms 20 and 21 after each layer is wound upon the drum, thus keeping the length of thread in each layer substantially constant. 'When the desired number of warps or quantity of thread has been wound upon the reel, the binding-threads 25 are passed down through the shed at one side of where the threads cross and" are brought up through the shed at the opposite side, the ends of the threads t being then tied together. The end loop of the associated warps is then slipped up and off from its pin, allowing the product to be unwound from the reel, and to be thereafter dyed or manipulated without danger of the individual threads snarling or becoming knotted together.

I am aware that many changes may be made in the construction by those who are skilled in the art, and I do not wish, therefore, to be limited to the details which Ihave shown and described; but

\Vhat I do claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a machine of the class described, the

combination of a reel, a series of pins or pro jections carried by said reel, a carriage, means for reciprocating said carriage so that the thread will be wound upon the reel substantially in the form of a helix or spiral, a guide or eye movably mounted in the carriage, and a rotatable cam mounted in said carriage for imparting an independent movement to said guide so that the thread is passed upon opposite sides of successive pins, sub stantially as described. I

2. In a machine of the class described, the combination of a contractile reel, gearing for adjusting the size of said reel, means for turning said reel in opposite directions, a leadscrew geared to said reel, a carriage actuated by said lead-screw, a guide or eye movably mounted in said carriage, and means for imparting an independent movement to said guide, substantially as described.

3. In a machine of the class described, the combination of a reel, a carriage, means for reciprocating said carriage so that the thread will be wound upon the reel substantially in the form of a helix or spiral, a guide or eye movably mounted in said carriage, a cam for imparting an independent movement to said guide, and means for automatically reversing the throw of said cam so that the threads will cross when the direction of the travel of the carriage is reversed, substantially as described.

4. In a machine of the class described,the combination of a reel, a carriage, means for reciprocating said carriage so that the thread will be wound upon the reel substantially in the form of a helix or spiral, a guide or eye, a loosely-mounted cam for imparting independent movement to said guide, and apin and slot for reversing the throw of said cam so that the threads will cross when the direction of the travel of the carriage is reversed, substantially as described.

5. In a machine of the class described, the combination of a reel, means for turning said reel in opposite directions, a lead-screw geared to said reel, a carriage actuated by said leadscrew, a guide or eye movably mounted in said carriage, and means for imparting an independent movement to said guide, substantially as described.

6. In a machine of the class described, the combination of a reel, means for turning said reel in opposite directions, a lead-screw geared to said reel, a carriage actuated by said leadscrew, a guide or eye movably mounted in said carriage, a loosely-mounted cam actuated from said lead-screw for imparting an independent movement to said guide, and a pin and slot for reversing the throw of the cam when the motion of the lead-screw is reversed, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES MACCALLUM.

WVitnesses:

FREDERICK B. HARLOW, PHILIP W. SOUTHGATE. 

